Even though Bellator hasn’t been giving us our weekly Friday night events over the summer, the promotion still managed to give us some big news last night. Yesterday, while you were preparing for dude’s night out, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney took to his Twitter page to announce that the promotion had come to terms with former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Renato “Babalu” Sobral. Along with the above image, Bjorn Rebney tweeted “Great news. Babalu now in the Bellator family. He’ll compete in our 205 tourney on Spike in January. Can’t wait.”
A fourteen year veteran of our sport, “Babalu” holds notable victories over Shogun Rua, Jeremy Horn, Chael Sonnen and current Bellator light-heavyweight Travis Wiuff. Given Wiuff’s current run in the promotion, there’s a very good chance that we’ll see these two fighting for the Bellator Light-Heavyweight title if they were to meet up again. Sobral’s most recent fight was a thirty one second armbar victory over Tatsuya Mizuno at ONE FC 4 in June. He was initially scheduled to fight at ONE FC’s August 31 show in Manila, Philippines, although an opponent had never been named.
Even though Bellator hasn’t been giving us our weekly Friday night events over the summer, the promotion still managed to give us some big news last night. Yesterday, while you were preparing for dude’s night out, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney took to his Twitter page to announce that the promotion had come to terms with former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Renato “Babalu” Sobral. Along with the above image, Bjorn Rebney tweeted “Great news. Babalu now in the Bellator family. He’ll compete in our 205 tourney on Spike in January. Can’t wait.”
A fourteen year veteran of our sport, “Babalu” holds notable victories over Shogun Rua, Jeremy Horn, Chael Sonnen and current Bellator light-heavyweight Travis Wiuff. Given Wiuff’s current run in the promotion, there’s a very good chance that we’ll see these two fighting for the Bellator Light-Heavyweight title if they were to meet up again. Sobral’s most recent fight was a thirty one second armbar victory over Tatsuya Mizuno at ONE FC 4 in June. He was initially scheduled to fight at ONE FC’s August 31 show in Manila, Philippines, although an opponent had never been named.
The signing doesn’t come without a caveat though. Babalu has a history of fighting dirty – the most notable example of this being his refusal to let go of an anaconda choke after his opponent, David Heath, tapped at UFC 74, which got him fired from the promotion. But considering Bellator’s acquisition of other noted rule breakers, such as King Mo and Brett Rogers, the promotion has demonstrated a willingness to take chances on fighters before.
Given Bellator’s recent signings of Travis Wiuff, King Mo and now Renato Sobral, their light-heavyweight division has become surprisingly competitive – especially considering how depleted the UFC’s light-heavyweight division currently is (although, to be fair, a champion as dominant as Jon Jones will clean out any division). The only question now is whether or not the ratings will reflect this. So you tell us, Bellator Season Eight: You excited for it or not?
Pictured: The closest Fernandes has come to landing a punch in the UFC.
After an astonishing 0-0 run in the UFC, it looks like Bibiano Fernandes already has a new home.
It’s being reported by MMAFighting.com that the former DREAM bantamweight champion has inked a deal with ONE FC and is set to make his promotional debut at an August 31 show in Manila, Philippines. An opponent has not been specified at this time.
Pictured: The closest Fernandes has come to landing a punch in the UFC.
After an astonishing 0-0 run in the UFC, it looks like Bibiano Fernandes already has a new home.
It’s being reported by MMAFighting.com that the former DREAM bantamweight champion has inked a deal with ONE FC and is set to make his promotional debut at an August 31 show in Manila, Philippines. An opponent has not been specified at this time.
For those of you keeping score, Bibiano Fernandes was initially set to make his UFC debut against Roland Delorme at UFC 149. However, after an injury sidelined Fernandes, Bibiano claimed to have never inked a deal with the UFC in the first place. In other words, we might not want to put too much stock in this signing until we actually see him in the cage on August 31.
Fernandes isn’t the only staple of the Japanese MMA scene to sign on with ONE FC. The promotion is also rumored to have signed former DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki, who will also be making his promotional debut on this card. At this point, if DREAM isn’t actually dead, it might as well be.
Barring an injury curse the likes of which we haven’t seen since UFC 149, ONE FC’s Manila card is shaping up to be one hell of a follow-up to last weekend’s already entertaining efforts. Aside from the promotional debuts of Fernandes and Aoki, Renato “Babalu” Sobral is also scheduled to appear on this card.
We’ll keep you up to date as more information becomes available about this card.
Perhaps “cluttered” is the best word to describe this weekend’s action. After all, that’s the same word that you would also use for your bedroom floor: There’s a lot of stuff on it, but there’s not much there that you couldn’t live without. This weekend, we have a lot of MMA available to us, such as UFC on FX 4, UFC 147 and Bellator 71. But despite the quantity of the fights available to us, there seems to be very little in terms of fights with immediate significance. It’s one thing when ratings are slipping, it’s another thing when your promotion has to offer full refunds for an injury plagued card, and it’s yet another thing when the only attention your promotion gets for an upcoming card revolves around the wife beater you recently inked a deal with.
But have no fear; this floor isn’t entirely covered in dirty socks, empty bottles and condom wrappers. There are some interesting tussles worth watching (notice we didn’t say pay for), which we’ll make the argument for after the jump. Or you can just join us later for our liveblogs of UFC on FX 4 and UFC 147. That works, too.
Perhaps “cluttered” is the best word to describe this weekend’s action. After all, that’s the same word that you would also use for your bedroom floor: There’s a lot of stuff on it, but there’s not much there that you couldn’t live without. This weekend, we have a lot of MMA available to us, such as UFC on FX 4, UFC 147 and Bellator 71. But despite the quantity of the fights available to us, there seems to be very little in terms of fights with immediate significance. It’s one thing when ratings are slipping, it’s another thing when your promotion has to offer full refunds for an injury plagued card, and it’s yet another thing when the only attention your promotion gets for an upcoming card revolves around the wife beater you recently inked a deal with.
But have no fear; this floor isn’t entirely covered in dirty socks, empty bottles and condom wrappers. There are some interesting tussles worth watching (notice we didn’t say pay for), which we’ll make the argument for after the jump. Or you can just join us later for our liveblogs of UFC on FX 4 and UFC 147. That works, too.
#1: Let’s See How Gray Maynard’s Cardio Has Improved:
It seems odd to question the conditioning of a guy who has eight out of ten career victories coming by decision, but we can’t ignore Gray Maynard‘s last outings. When we last saw Gray, he was getting knocked out by then-lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 136. It was the first official loss of his career, coming in a rematch from a controversial draw from their earlier meeting at UFC 125. In both fights, Maynard started out strong, yet gassed out early, costing him what appeared to be a sure victory throughout the first two rounds of both fights.
Now, Maynard finds himself across the cage from Clay Guida, who is coming off of a loss himself. On paper, this is Maynard’s fight to lose. “The Bully” is the more powerful striker, a much better wrestler and should be able to outclass “The Carpenter” no matter where this fight ends up.
Yet if Gray Maynard’s conditioning is not up to par, he’ll be no match for Guida’s energetic attack. And before anyone mentions that Maynard’s last two efforts were five round fights, three rounds with Guida is comparable to five rounds with anyone, hair be damned. The bottom line here is simple: If we watch another dominant first round from Maynard followed by two rounds of wheezing, expect Clay Guida to walk away victorious and expect Maynard to return to the middle of the pack until his conditioning improves.
#2: Can Matt Brown Consistently Win The Fights He’s Supposed To?
As anyone who has ever placed a bet on a Matt Brown fight can tell you, “The Immortal” isn’t exactly the most consistent fighter out there. It seems like the fights that he’s supposed to win, he loses. After losing four out of five fights from 2010-2011, Brown has put together two straight victories in 2012; the most recent one being a very entertaining brawl with Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson that he took by unanimous decision at UFC 145.
Brown now finds himself in familiar territory: A fight that he should win. Sure, he hasn’t won three straight fights since 2009, but Luis Ramos didn’t exactly look unbeatable during the forty second thrashing he took from Erick Silva in his UFC debut. If Brown wins tonight, perhaps we can finally stop questioning whether or not he can execute his game plan on a consistent basis. At least until his next fight.
#3: Is It Enough For Werdum To Just Win To Be A Contender Again?
When Fabricio Werdum made his return to the UFC, he did so in devastating fashion with a victory over Roy Nelson. He looked extremely impressive, as “Big Country” was unable to mount any significant offense. Werdum looked better than he had seemingly in ages, and some fans felt that his name should be in the mix for a title shot in the near future.
In other groundbreaking news, it’s hot in Louisiana today.
Of course Werdum looked good against Roy Nelson: “Big Country” is a good test for an unproven prospect or an aging legend, but he’s also about as hand-picked of an opponent as it gets for top-tier heavyweights. Nelson is pretty much the Aldo Montoya of the UFC heavyweight division.
Now Fabricio Werdum finds himself across the cage from Mike Russow, a fighter who has quietly won four straight fights in the UFC against mid-to-lower tier opposition. As the gambling lines indicate, Werdum is expected to crush Russow and earn a fight against a contender by the year’s end. But what happens if this fight actually goes to the judges? Does Werdum’s hype train get derailed if he doesn’t turn in another near-perfect performance, or will it just be a testament to how game Mike Russow actually is?
#4: Can Travis Wiuff Take The First Step Towards Claiming What Is Rightfully His?
Things got pretty awkward for Bellator back at Bellator 55. The promotion booked a “non-title superfight” with their newly-crowned light-heavyweight champion, Christian M’Pumbu, against veteran journeyman (and YAMMA Pit champion) Travis Wiuff. The fight was supposed to be another devastating knockout on the résumé of M’Pumbu, yet Wiuff managed to defeat the champion by unanimous decision.
Tonight, Wiuff takes the first step towards claiming the belt that we feel should already be his. Entering the Summer Series Light-Heavyweight Tournament, he has a pretty favorable matchup tonight in Chris Davis. If Wiuff is going to take the tournament and earn a rematch with M’Pumbu, it’ll start tonight in West Virginia.
#5: How does Tim Carpenter fair as a late replacement for Richard Hale?
In other Bellator tournament news, light-heavyweight standout Richard Hale has been forced out of the tournament at the last minute due to an illness. Replacing him against Beau Tribolet will be Philadelphia’s Tim Carpenter, who was originally scheduled to fight on the undercard of tonight’s event.
Carpenter is no slouch, having made a decent run in the Season Four Light-Heavyweight tournament before being knocked out by the eventual tournament winner Christian M’Pumbu. Since then, he has put together a first round TKO over Ryan Contaldi at Bellator 54. But will Beau Tribolet be too much for Carpenter, who came to yesterday’s weigh-ins expecting a much easier fight on the undercard?
The good news though is that there actually are some names you’ll recognize on their fourth installment tomorrow night: Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Roger Huerta. When we last saw Babalu, he was a consensus top ten light-heavyweight until Dan Henderson shut out his lights in December of 2010. The Brazilian submission specialist makes his return to the cage tonight against Tatsuya Mizuno, who enters the bout sporting an 11-7 record. On paper, it’s a PRIDE-era mismatch. But perhaps the Babalu’s time away from the sport will level the playing field a bit.
Likewise, in 2007, Roger Huerta was one of the baddest guys on the planet, having won six straight in the UFC and sporting a 20-1-1 (1 NC) record. Since that time, Huerta has been released by the UFC and lost five of his last six outings. His most recent loss was an all around tragic affair that ended in a TKO at the hands of the newly-released War Machine. If he loses to the 6-1 prospect Zorobabel Moreira, he may want to consider walking away for good from MMA.
Filed under: News, ONE FCFormer Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Renato “Babalu” Sobral will meet K-1 veteran Melvin Manhoef in the main event of One FC 3 on March 31 in Singapore, promoters announced Tuesday in a press conference.
Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Renato “Babalu” Sobral will meet K-1 veteran Melvin Manhoef in the main event of One FC 3 on March 31 in Singapore, promoters announced Tuesday in a press conference.
Sobral inked an exclusive deal a month ago with One FC after missing the entire 2011 due to a shoulder injury and time off for his family. Sobral was last seen in action in a first-round KO loss to Dan Henderson at Strikeforce in St. Louis in December 2010.
Manhoef, who has lost his last three MMA fights in the first round, fought over the weekend in a losing effort
under kickboxing rules against Tyrone Spong at “It’s Showtime” in Amsterdam.
Also announced for One FC’s first partnership event with DREAM is a co-main event with leglock expert Masakazu Imanari taking on undefeated Filipino prospect Kevin Belingon.
Imanari competed six times in 2011, five of which as part of the two DREAM bantamweight tournaments. Imanari fell short in the Japan tournament final against Hideo Tokoro by decision. On New Year’s Eve, Imanari lost in the world tournament semifinals to Antonio Banuelos by split decision. Belingon is a 24-year-old who made his name fighting for the URCC and Legend FC promotion, in the Philippines and Hong Kong, respectively.
Singapore’s first professional female MMA fighter Nicole Chua will also compete at One FC 3 at
the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
During the press conference, One FC announced its intention to make Singapore the Asian headquarters for MMA. One FC recently announced a 10-year deal with ESPN STAR and on Tuesday added 17 more gyms to its One FC network of fight camps.
(The Bellator catchweight champ will be looking to extend his unbeaten streak to 25 fights with a win over Prangley.)
Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that its current middleweight champion, Hector Lombard (32-1-1, 1 NC) will square off with UFC and Strikeforce vet Trevor Prangley (23-8-1) in a non-title catchweight affair at Bellator 58 on November 19 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fl.
The bout, which will be contested at 195 lbs for unknown reasons will be the second non-title bout in a row for Lombard, who won the Bellator strap in June 2009 and has only defended it once since, when he defeated Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 34 last October.
(The Bellator catchweight champ will be looking to extend his unbeaten streak to 25 fights with a win over Prangley.)
Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that its current middleweight champion, Hector Lombard (32-1-1, 1 NC) will square off with UFC and Strikeforce vet Trevor Prangley (23-8-1) in a non-title catchweight affair at Bellator 58 on November 19 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fl.
The bout, which will be contested at 195 lbs for unknown reasons will be the second non-title bout in a row for Lombard, who won the Bellator strap in June 2009 and has only defended it once since, when he defeated Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 34 last October.
Lombard has not lost since dropping a unanimous decision to Gegard Mousasi at Pride Bushido 13 in 2006. The 33-year-old Cuban has put together an impressive 24-fight streak since then with wins over UFC veterans Jay Silva, Joe Doerksen, Kalib Starnes, Brian Ebersole and Jesse Taylor, whom he beat in his last outing in September under the Australian Fighting Championship banner that saw him win the promotion’s inaugural middleweight title. During that span he also won and defended the Cage Fighting Championship 185-pound title seven times.
He promises to put on a show for the fans in Florida.
“I just want November to get here and knock someone out,” Lombard said. “I doesn’t matter who it is, I just want to do what I do and that’s win. I don’t know much about Trevor, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll be in front of my fans in Florida, and it’s going to be a show.”
Prangley is no slouch himself. The 39-year-old South African holds wins over veterans Chael Sonnen, Matt Horwich and Keith Jardine, Andrei Semenov and Travis Lutter. 1-3 in his last four outings including Strikeforce losses to Tim Kennedy and Roger Gracie and a loss to Tatsuya Mizuno at the DREAM Japan Grand Prix Final in his last fight in July, Prangley, whose penchant for striking should match up well with Lombard’s similar style is no pushover. He says that he expects to stand in the pocket and trade with his young and dangerous opponent and that he’s confident he can best “Shango.”
“Both of us are going to get in that cage and throw bombs, no questions asked,” Prangley said. “It’s no secret both of us like to stand and bang, and that’s exactly what everyone is going to get. I know Hector is really tough on his feet, but so am I, so he’s going to have to play my game when the cage door shuts.”
Apparently Renato “Babalu” Sobral is a free agent. Otherwise, Bellator wouldn’t be talking to the former UFC light heavyweight contender about possibly facing its middleweight champ, Hector Lombard.
According to Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, his promotion has been involved in talks with Sobral’s camp to sign the 36-9 submission specialist for a non-title bout with Lombard (30-2-1, 1 NC) at Bellator 58 on November 19, but nothing is set in stone. Strangely, the promoter still announced that the bout was in the works, which could simply be a tactic to pressure Babalu, who has only fought twice in the past two years, into signing on the dotted line.
“I’ve been a big ‘Babalu’ fan for a lot of years,” Rebney told MMAJunkie. “They weren’t really on our radar, but then they reached out to us and opened the door and asked for a few things. We agreed to all of them. … But now we’re siting back and waiting. We haven’t heard anything back from them in three or four days.”
(“Publicity stunt, you say? What’s that?”)
Apparently Renato “Babalu” Sobral is a free agent. Otherwise, Bellator wouldn’t be talking to the former UFC light heavyweight contender about possibly facing its middleweight champ, Hector Lombard.
According to Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, his promotion has been involved in talks with Sobral’s camp to sign the 36-9 submission specialist for a non-title bout with Lombard (30-2-1, 1 NC) at Bellator 58 on November 19, but nothing is set in stone. Strangely, the promoter still announced that the bout was in the works, which could simply be a tactic to pressure Babalu, who has only fought twice in the past two years, into signing on the dotted line.
“I’ve been a big ‘Babalu’ fan for a lot of years,” Rebney told MMAJunkie. “They weren’t really on our radar, but then they reached out to us and opened the door and asked for a few things. We agreed to all of them. … But now we’re siting back and waiting. We haven’t heard anything back from them in three or four days.”
Lombard says he’s ready and willing to fight Babalu and says that he has no problem fighting above his middleweight class for a fight of that caliber, in spite of the fact that he hasn’t fought at 205 in more than five years.
“I got a call from Bjorn … and he talked to me about the situation that ‘Babalu’ wanted to fight me. He wanted the fight at 205 pounds. I said, ‘I’m here to fight. Let’s just make the fight happen as soon as possible,’” Lombard explained. “It wouldn’t be one of the easiest fights of my career. But he’s got a good name.”
Let’s hope this isn’t another “We made the offer. Now the ball’s in Scott Coker’s court,” type of deal as was the case in the ballyhooed Gilbert Melendez and Eddie Alvarez bout that never happened. Babalu is a guy who always comes to fight, wherever the action goes and Lombard is a nasty fighter, so there’s a pretty good chance this bout could deliver. Don’t leave us hanging, Bjorn. Pick up the phone and get it done. Not like the Lombard-Filho bout we’re still waiting on. Okay, not really, but you get the picture.
The event, which is scheduled for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida and will be broadcast on MTV2 will also feature the final round bouts from Bellator’s Season 5 tournament as well as the promotional debut of Shooto’s 183-pound South American champion, Carlos Alexandre Pereira.
Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion 
